German Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich: "extremism by Salafis, and forced marriage has no place in Germany".(AlArabiya).A conference aimed at furthering Muslim integration in Germany on Thursday condemned forced marriages and voiced concern over stepped-up recruiting by an ultra-conservative Islamic group, as a leading conservative politician said that Islam did not belong in Germany.
Interior Minister Hans-Peter Friedrich told the one-day forum that extremism by Salafis had no place in Germany after a recent drive by the group to distribute 25 million German-language copies of the Quran.
“We all agree that Salafist extremism is not acceptable and does not work in a free society, as we have in Germany,” he said in opening remarks, according to AFP.
The move by a group of Salafis called “The True Religion” this month to hand out the Quran on the streets of Germany, Austria and Switzerland and via the Internet in a bid to convert non-Muslims provoked uproar in Germany.
Domestic violence and forced marriage were also singled out by the forum, set up in 2006 and attended by federal, state and local officials as well as Muslim groups representing more than half of Germany’s mosque congregations.
It stated that everyone has the right to “freedom from physical and mental harm, as well as the right to enter a marriage or to refrain from it by their own decision and in the framework of the applicable laws.”More than 3,000 women and girls in Germany, most from Muslim families and many of them minors, were forced to wed or threatened with forced marriage in 2008 -- the most recent year with sufficient data, according to official research released in November.
Germany passed legislation in 2010 against forced marriages, making it a criminal act punishable by up to five years in prison and providing means for victims taken abroad to return to Germany.
The country counts some three million Turks or Germans of Turkish origin among its 82-million-strong population but the issue of integration remains a matter of politically-charged debate.
The domestic intelligence service estimates there are about 2,500 Salafis, who espouse an austere form of Sunni Islam, in Germany and says it has them under official observation.
The agency has described Ibrahim Abu Nagie, who launched the campaign, as a prominent exponent of Salafism and German authorities view his website as a hub for radical Islamists.
Meanwhile, a leading conservative politician said on Thursday that Islam did not belong in Germany, fuelling further tension.
“Islam is not part of our tradition and identity in Germany and so does not belong in Germany,” Volker Kauder, head of Chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservatives in parliament, told the Passauer Neue Presse.
“But Muslims do belong in Germany. As state citizens, of course, they enjoy their full rights,” he added, according to Reuters.
In response to concern about radicalization and aware of the stimulus a well-qualified cohort of young Muslims could give to Europe’s biggest economy, Merkel set up forums, or conferences, six years ago to improve integration.
Kauder’s comments quickly drew fire.
“Volker Kauder is the last crusader for the conservatives. He is putting a bomb in the Islam conference,” said senior opposition Social Democrat (SPD) lawmaker Thomas Oppermann.
“(He).. is denigrating and marginalizing all Muslims in Germany. That course is utterly wrong,” he said.
Participants at Thursday’s Islam conference comprised delegates from the federal and state governments and Islamic groups in Germany.
Critics, many from Merkel’s traditionally Catholic party, say the campaign is ideological, aimed at recruiting supporters.
Some Muslim groups have also criticized the Quran handouts, though for a different reason. The chairman of the Central Council of Muslims in Germany has said the Quran is not a PR pamphlet for mass distribution.Kenan Kolat, the head of Turkish Communities in Germany, warned against hysteria. “If there is a glorification of violence or an infringement of free, democratic basic values, then there are police measures that can be used,” said Kolat.Read the full story here.

Iranian oil Minister: No Problem for Exporting Iranian Crude,... why is Turkey still importing 51% of it's oil from Iran?(Fars).Iran would face no problem exporting its oil as there are new costumers with new contracts for purchasing the country's crude oil, Qasemi said.
The minister hoped that Tehran's next round of talks with representatives of the western states in Baghdad, Iraq, (set for May 23, 2012) would follow up the agreements reached between the two sides in Istanbul, Turkey.
"If the sanctions currently imposed against Iran would not be removed and if new sanctions be imposed against the country instead, this would seriously turbulent the energy market," said the minister.
He also said that Iran will continue its oil exports to other countries excluding Britain and France.
Speaking to reporters at a press conference, Qasemi said Tehran has officially cut off its oil exports to London and Paris.
He said that Tehran was closely watching the way European states were dealing with Iran.
Qassemi had earlier this month announced that despite the international and unilateral sanctions against the country's oil sector, Iran's annual crude exports have reached $60bln.
"This year the status of (our) oil exports has improved and long strides have been taken for the flourishing of the country's economy," Qassemi said.
"Despite the fact that all countries have mobilized against Iran, the country's oil exports have reached $60bln now," he added.
Qassemi downplayed the effects of sanctions on the country's progress and flourishing, and said enemies should know that Iran is independent from other countries and sanctions have led to Iran's further progress and development.
In the last days of 2011, Washington imposed new sanctions on Iran to penalize countries for importing Iranian oil or doing trade with its central bank.
The US extraterritorial laws and pressures forced the EU member states to ratify in their meeting on January 23 and after months of debates to sanction oil imports from Iran and freeze the assets of Iran's Central Bank within the EU.
The Iranian oil ministry in a statement in late January downplayed the effects of the US and EU's unilateral oil sanctions against Tehran, and said such embargoes will merely harm the European economies and oil consuming countries.
Tehran summoned the ambassadors of Italy, Spain, France, Greece, Portugal and the Netherlands to protest at the EU's unilateral sanctions against Tehran over its peaceful nuclear program, and warned them that it would soon stop oil exports to these countries if they do not reverse their decision.
After the EU's decision to embargo Iranian oil supplies, Tehran stopped exports first to France and Britain and very recently to Greece and Spain. Following Tehran's oil sanctions against the three and its warning to other EU members, oil prices started soaring in the world markets.
Meantime, demand is growing for Iranian crude oil in Asian and African markets after the EU's fresh decision.
Iran is currently supplying 100% of Sri Lanka's oil needs, 51% of Turkey, 25% of South Africa, 14% of Greece, 13% of Italy and Spain, 11% of India and China and 10% of Japan and South Korea's oil demands.Hmmmmm.......I thought Obama's buddy Erdogan declared they would CUT 20 % of their Iranian oil import?It's OK for Europe to 'suffer' but not for Turkey?Read the full story here.

'October Surprise' in the making? Without Warning, FBI Halts Intel Sharing.(PJMedia).The FBI has responded to our exclusive reporting this morning that they had cut off intelligence sharing of Terrorist Screening Center watch encounter reports to fusion centers nationwide. According to several fusion center officials interviewed today, the FBI is now saying that they will resume sending TSC watch encounter reports beginning next Monday. However, these reports will no longer contain Personal Information Intelligence (PII) related to the subject on the terror watch list.
As one official said, “This is like promising us free bags of M&Ms, but without the M&Ms. There is practically nothing we can do with these reports without PII, which seems to be the FBI’s intent. They want to keep up the appearance of intel sharing without actually sharing intel.”
Without making a public or private announcement, the FBI has ended critical intelligence sharing with all 77 law enforcement fusion centers nationwide. This policy was implemented less than two days after a top FBI official told Congress about the FBI’s extensive efforts to share intelligence with state and local partners.
On Monday, a state fusion center official told PJ Media:
The FBI has effectively put us out of business. We are right back to September 10.
Two other fusion center officials in other states confirmed the FBI’s new policy to PJ Media.
On March 1, the FBI’s Terrorist Screening Center (TSC) stopped sharing watch encounter reports with the fusion centers.
The Watch Encounter reports document incidents of individuals on terror watch lists having encounters with state or local law enforcement.
Until now, the Watch Encounter reports were forwarded to the fusion center responsible for the area where the encounter occurred. Since the TSC doesn’t share the terror watch lists with the fusion centers, the Watch Encounter reports were the only means that state officials had of knowing that someone on a terror watch list had either traveled to or lived in their area.
On February 28, Assistant Director of the FBI’s Directorate of Intelligence Eric Velez-Villar appeared before the House Homeland Security Counterterrorism and Intelligence Subcommittee. The hearing focused on the FBI’s intelligence sharing with state, local, and tribal law enforcement ten years after the 9/11 attacks. Velez-Villar discussed the importance of the fusion centers in the FBI’s investigative process:
Fusion centers maximize our ability to detect, prevent, investigate, and respond to criminal and terrorist activity. They assist the FBI by providing information made available by the combination of knowledge, expertise, and information within local law enforcement and homeland security agencies operating throughout the nation, and our participation allows us to provide a national perspective on regional threats and trends so we can better inform decision makers at all levels. The exchange of intelligence that takes place in fusion centers aids other intelligence and law enforcement organizations — including the JTTFs — in their investigative operations and serves as a critical tool for collaboration at all levels.
Two days later, the sharing stopped. Said another fusion center official who spoke with PJ Media on Tuesday:
After a couple of days our analysts noticed that the reports had stopped coming. No notice, no explanation.
Congressional staffers are now investigating, and a key point has been raised in the investigation: it appears the FBI may be required to provide such intelligence to the fusion centers by presidential executive orders and federal law.Hmmm......The Director of the FBI reports directly to the Deputy Attorney General........Holder and Co.Read the full story here.

This handout photograph released by the National Institute of Child Health (NICH) in Pakistan shows a newly-born child with six legs at a hospital in Karachi. Doctors in Pakistan say they have successfully operated to save the life of the baby, born with six legs due to a rare genetic condition, hospital officials said Thursday.

Pakistan doctors save life of baby with six legs.(Yahoo).Doctors in Pakistan say they have successfully operated to save the life of a baby born with six legs due to a rare genetic condition, hospital officials said Thursday.
"A team of five experienced doctors have successfully separated the extra legs and limbs from the baby today. He is very much safe and secure," said Jamal Raza, the director of National Institute of the Child Health in Karachi.
Raza said it was a case of parasitic conjunction -- more than one baby joined together but only one of them fully formed.
The boy was born to the wife of an X-ray technician a couple of weeks ago in Sukkur city, around 450 kilometres (280 miles) north of Karachi, and was moved to Karachi for treatment early this week.
"The extra limbs and legs were the result of a genetic disease which would affect only one in a million or more babies," the doctor said.
Imran Shaikh, the baby's father, was thrilled.
"It is great news for us. What the parents want is to see their kids healthy and strong. We pray his life remains normal and joyful," he told reporters.Hmmmm.....Why are there so many babies with deformities born in India and Pakistan?Read the full story here.

Ex-presidential candidate Al-Shater Reinstated Deputy Chairman of Muslim Brotherhood in Egypt.(IW).Secretary-General of the Muslim Brotherhood Dr. Mahmoud Hussein has confirmed the return of Khairat Al-Shater to his position in the organization as a member of its Guidance Bureau and Deputy Chairman.
The Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau has officially withdrawn Al-Shater’s resignation, which he submitted following the announcement by the Muslim Brotherhood and its political wing the Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) that they nominated him for the Presidency.
Thus the Brotherhood reinstated Al-Shater once the reason for his resignation was eliminated, as the Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission (SPEC) made its decision to formally exclude him from running for the presidency, despite the legal validity of his position.
A press statement about reinstating Al-Shater in membership of the Muslim Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau
Given the decision of Supreme Presidential Electoral Commission excluding Khairat Al-Shater from running for the Presidency, despite the legal validity of his position, the Guidance discussed at today's meeting (April 18, 2012) the resignation submitted by Khairat Al-Shater – from his position as Deputy Chairman and member of the Guidance Bureau – after the Brotherhood’s Shura Council tasked him with applying for nomination.
According to the Brotherhood’s Rules of Procedure, due to the elimination of the cause of removal from office, the Guidance Bureau has decided not to accept the resignation.
Thus, Khairat Al-Shater returns hereby to his position as member of the Guidance Bureau and Deputy Chairman of the Muslim Brotherhood.Hmmmm.....As i said before Egypt's presidential election, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi 'favorite' Abdelmoneim Abul Futuh still in the race.Read the full story here.

Iran stonewalling efforts to inspect Parchin military site.(Jpost).VIENNA - Iran says it is ready to resume talks with the UN nuclear watchdog two months after their last meeting ended in failure, but still appears to be stonewalling a request for access to a key military site, Western diplomats said on Thursday.
Just days after Iran and six world powers restarted negotiations in Istanbul, the Islamic Republic delivered a letter to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) on holding new discussions with the UN body as well.
But Vienna-based diplomats said it did not mention the IAEA's most pressing demand - that its inspectors be allowed to visit the Parchin military site southeast of Tehran, where the agency believes nuclear-relevant research may have taken place.
IAEA chief Yukiya Amano told Reuters last month he did not rule out that Iran may be trying to remove evidence prior to any visit. Western diplomats say they suspect the site is being "sanitized", a charge Tehran dismisses.
Iran's ambassador to the IAEA, Ali Asghar Soltanieh, handed over the letter to senior agency officials on Tuesday which said Tehran is "ready to resume the negotiations", one Western diplomat said.
But, another envoy said, it "does not offer the agency access to Parchin."
A third diplomat said, the IAEA may decide to travel to Tehran again in any case, before a meeting of the agency's 35-nation governing board in early June to show that it is giving "dialogue a chance."
Neither the IAEA nor Iran was immediately available for comment on the issue.
Iran's overtures to the UN agency, which is tasked with preventing the spread of nuclear weapons in the world, coincides with renewed diplomacy between the Islamic state and the six world powers.
Both Tehran and the powers said they were content with progress made in last Saturday's talks in Istanbul which did not go into detail but, unlike earlier rounds of negotiations, stayed on the subject of Iran's nuclear program.
Iran's foreign minister said on Monday that his country was ready to resolve all nuclear issues in the next round of talks with the powers - the United States, Germany, France, Russia, China and Britain - if the West starts lifting sanctions.
The United States has ruled out, however, any easing of punitive measures before Tehran takes concrete and significant action to allay suspicions over its disputed nuclear program.
"The negotiations may be long, arduous, and ultimately unsatisfactory," said Alireza Nader, a senior analyst at RAND Corporation, a US-based research group.
Western powers suspect Iran is seeking to develop the capability to make nuclear bombs. Iran, one of the world's largest oil producers, says its program is a peaceful project to generate electricity and produce medical isotopes.
An IAEA report late last year revealed a trove of intelligence pointing to research activities in Iran of use in developing the means and technologies needed to assemble nuclear weapons, should it decide to do so.
The UN agency's document lent independent weight to Western suspicions and paved the way for the United States and its European allies to dramatically ratchet up sanctions against Iran, targeting its lifeblood oil exports.
One salient finding in the report was information that Iran had built a large containment chamber at Parchin in which to conduct high-explosives tests that the IAEA said are "strong indicators of possible weapon development."
Two rounds of meetings between a senior IAEA team and Iran in January and February in Tehran failed to produce any breakthrough in the nuclear dispute, with Iran not granting access to Parchin.
Iran has rejected suspicions aired about the site as "ridiculous" and "childish."
But RAND's Nader said Iran must come clean "regarding clandestine work directly related to nuclear westernization", including opening up sites such as Parchin to inspections.Hmmmm.........Ahmadinejad Singing:"Tiiiiiiiiiiiime is on my side, yes it is!"Read the full story here.

'Genocide' cartoon in French school shocks Turkish students.(HD).Two Turkish students in a French school have reacted after a cartoon depicting a Turk carrying a basket full of skulls with the words "Armenian Genocide" written on its side was shown in class.
The incident occurred at the College Anatole France high school in the city of Montbéliard in France's Comte region.
A teacher displayed a cartoon during a geography and history class and asked students: "What do you understand from this cartoon? Why can Turkey not join the EU according to this cartoon?"
The cartoon depicted a mountain with the EU flag erected at its peak. Three stereotypical caricatures of Balkan peoples were drawn climbing the mountain. At the very bottom of the mountain was a "peasant" Turkish man struggling to get up from the ground with a very large basket on his back. The basket was filled with human skulls with the word "Turkey" written on it and the words "Armenian Genocide" above. Behind the Turkish character, a slender man with "France" written over his head was shown adding a skull to the already-full basket.Turkish students Muhammed Ali Erki, 17, and İsmail Erdal, 14, said they were shocked to see the cartoon. Erki reportedly asked his teacher, "We did not commit genocide, yet you accuse us of it. What do you think about Algerians?"
“You are right but this cartoon is not my idea, I need to give this class as part of the curriculum,” the teacher said in reply.
Erdal said he understood from the cartoon that "the French do not want to see Turkey in the EU."
The students said they had not been able to concentrate on their classes after seeing the cartoon and added that were especially saddened to see North African students making fun of Turkey and Turks.
The families of the students notified the anti-racism COJEP International foundation. COJEP President Ali Gedikoğlu said they would bring the cartoon to the attention of the authorities in France and file a complaint with the French Education Ministry to have the cartoon removed from the curriculum.Hmmmm.....Erdogan:"Muslims don't commit Genocide".........More pictures and info on the 'Non Excistant' Armenian Genocide here, warning contains violent graphic images.Read the full story here.

President Omar Hassan al-Bashir says Sudan to teach South "final lesson by force".(Yahoo).Khartoum (Reuters) - Sudan's President Omar Hassan al-Bashir threatened war against his newly-independent neighbour on Thursday, vowing to teach South Sudan a "final lesson by force" after it occupied a disputed oil field.
Appearing in medal-spangled general's uniform at a large rally in the border province of North Kordofan, the burly military ruler danced side-to-side, waved his walking stick in the air and made blistering threats against the leadership of the South, which broke off last year after decades of civil war.
"These people don't understand, and we will give them the final lesson by force," Bashir told the rally in El-Obeid, North Kordofan's capital. "We will not give them an inch of our country, and whoever extends his hand on Sudan, we will cut it."
South Sudan separated from the rest of Sudan with Bashir's blessing last July under the terms of a 2005 peace deal. But since then violence has steadily escalated, fuelled by territorial disputes, ethnic animosity and quarrels over oil.
Last week, South Sudan seized Heglig, a disputed oil field near the border between the two countries, claiming it as its rightful territory and saying it would only withdraw if the United Nations deployed a neutral force there.
Bashir vowed to retake the oil field, which he said was part of Sudan's Kordofan province. That alone would not resolve the conflict, he added.
"Heglig is not the end, but the beginning."
Global powers have voiced alarm at the escalation of violence and urged the two to stop fighting and return to talks.
In a dramatic escalation of rhetoric on Wednesday, Bashir said he would "liberate" South Sudan from its rulers, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement, which fought the guerrilla civil war against Khartoum.
There was no immediate comment from the South to Thursday's speech.
China, a major investor in both countries, expressed "serious concern" about the increase of tensions and called on both sides to stop fighting, "maintain calm and exercise maximum restraint".
"China has worked hard to ameliorate the problems between the two Sudans, and we will continue to work with the international community at mediation efforts," Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Weimin told a daily news briefing.
Some 2 million people died in Sudan's civil war, fought for all but a few years from 1955 to 2005 over disputes of ideology, ethnicity and religion.
The countries remain at odds over the position of their border, how much the landlocked South should pay to transport its oil through Sudan and the division of national debt, among other issues.
Both countries accuse each other of waging proxy war through militia operating on each other's territory.
Sudan's military - with an air force, tanks and artillery - is far better equipped than the former guerrilla fighters who make up the South Sudan army. In addition to the civil war in the south, Sudan has also fought long-simmering rebellions in Kordofan and Darfur.
Bashir is wanted by the International Criminal Court in the Hague for war crimes in connection with the Darfur conflict, charges he rejects as political.
The south has tens of thousands of fighters under arms, with decades of experience in guerrilla conflict.
Hmmmm.....9 July 2011, South Sudan became independent, i predicted 6 months later it would be at war, i was wrong it's 9 months.Read the full story here.

The TSA's mission creep is making the US a police state.(Guardian).By Jennifer Abel.The out-of-control TSA is past patdowns at airports – now it's checkpoints and roadblocks.Ever since 2010, when the Transportation Security Administration started requiring that travelers in American airports submit to sexually intrusive gropings based on the apparent anti-terrorism principle that "If we can't feel your nipples, they must be a bomb", the agency's craven apologists have shouted down all constitutional or human rights objections with the mantra "If you don't like it, don't fly!"This callous disregard for travelers' rights merely paraphrases the words of Homeland Security director Janet Napolitano, who shares, with the president, ultimate responsibility for all TSA travesties since 2009. In November 2010, with the groping policy only a few weeks old,Napolitano dismissed complaintsby saying "people [who] want to travel by some other means" have that right. (In other words: if you don't like it, don't fly.)
But now TSA is invading travel by other means, too. No surprise, really: as soon as she established groping in airports, Napolitano expressed her desire to expand TSA jurisdiction over all forms of mass transit. In the past year, TSA's snakelike VIPR (Visual Intermodal Prevention and Response) teams have been slithering into more and more bus and train stations – and even running checkpoints on highways – never in response to actual threats, but apparently more in an attempt to live up to the inspirational motto displayed at the TSA's air marshal training center since the agency's inception: "Dominate. Intimidate. Control."
I grew up in the Hampton Roads region of Virginia. When I was a kid, my dad crossed the bridge-tunnel every day while commuting to work. When I was in university, I did the same thing. The old conventional wisdom said "Get to the airport at least two hours early, so TSA has time to violate your constitutional rights before boarding." What's the new conventional wisdom – "Leave for any destination at least 90 minutes early, so TSA can violate your rights en route"?
Airports, bus terminals, train stations, highways – what's left? If you don't like it, walk. And remember to be respectfully submissive to any TSA agents or police you encounter in your travels, especially now that the US supreme court has ruled mass strip-searches are acceptable for anyone arrested for even the most minor offence in America. If you're rude to any TSA agent or cops, you risk being arrested on some vague catch-all charge like "disorderly conduct". Even if the charges are later dropped, you'll still undergo the ritual humiliation of having to strip, squat, spread 'em and show your various orifices to be empty. Can I call America a police state now, without being accused of hyperbole?Read the full story here.

According to Sigmund Freud, projection is a psychological defense mechanism whereby one "projects" one's own undesirable thoughts, motivations, desires, and feelings onto someone else. 'Emotions or excitations which the ego tries to ward off are "split out" and then felt as being outside the ego...perceived in another person'. It is a common process.

The related defense of 'projective identification differs from projection in that the impulse projected onto an external object does not appear as something alien and distant from the ego because the connection of the self with that projected impulse continues'.
In one example of the process, a person might have thoughts of infidelity with respect to a spouse or other partner. Instead of dealing with these undesirable thoughts consciously, the subject unconsciously projects these feelings onto the other person, and begins to think that the other has thoughts of infidelity and that the other may be having an affair. In this way, the subject may obtain 'acquittal by his conscience - if he projects his own impulses to faithlessness on to the partner to whom he owes faith'.

In this sense, projection is related to denial, arguably the only more primitive defense mechanism than projection, which, like all defense mechanisms, provides a function whereby a person can protect the conscious mind from a feeling that is otherwise repulsive.
Projection can also be established as a means of obtaining or justifying certain actions that would normally be found atrocious or heinous. This often means projecting false accusations, information, etc., onto an individual for the sole purpose of maintaining a self-created illusion. One of the many problems with the process whereby 'something dangerous that is felt inside can be moved outside - a process of "projection"' - is that as a result 'the projector may become somewhat depleted and rendered limp in character, as he loses part of his personality'.
Compartmentalization, splitting, and projection are ways that the ego continues to pretend that it is completely in control at all times, when in reality human experience is one of shifting instinctual reactivity and emotional motivation in which the "I" is not always complicit. Further, while engaged in projection, individuals can be unable to access truthful memories, intentions, and experiences, even about their own nature, as is common in deep trauma.

Inpsychopathology, projection is an especially commonly used defense mechanism in people with certain personality disorders: 'Patients withparanoidpersonalities, for example, use projection as a primary defense because it allows them to disavow unpleasant feelings and attribute them to others'.
According to Kernberg, all 'the primitive defenses, such as splitting, [projection] and projective identification, are commonly connected with primitively organized personalities, such as ':

Some Iranian ICBM Experts May Still be in N. Korea, believed Close to Testing Uranium Nuke.(CC).North Korea is believed to be preparing its first test of a uranium nuclear weapon--Pyongyang's previous nuclear tests used plutonium. Click here to read more.
As the Reuters article makes clear, there is no civilian purpose for such a test. Nor was there a peaceful purpose to Pyongyang's plutonium device detonations. North Korea clearly intends to become a producer of nuclear bombs and warheads--its scientists and technicians have been working on miniaturization--and proving that it can use enriched uranium instead of plutonium to manufacture the weapons is a significant step forward for the "military-first" regime. There is an Iranian hand in the North's uranium push. Should Iran decide to end its nuclear standoff with the West by accepting an agreement that will make it possible for the mullahocracy to end its suspect uranium enrichment activities while leaving intact both an ability to secretly make several nuclear weapons at short notice and a presumed stockpile of dirty bombs, the regime would like to be able to outsource nuclear weapons production to its proliferation partner. Bombs and warheads can be smuggled; and nuclear-tipped missiles can be concealed in shipping containers and fired at coastal cities from seemingly civilian cargo vessels, using camouflaged launch systems that Iran and North Korea are believed to have already tested.
Foreign Confidential analysts believe that at least three Iranian ballistic missile experts are still in North Korea following its failed "satellite launch"--a thinly disguised test of an intercontinental ballistic missile that was produced with Iran's assistance. The remaining visitors were part of a larger Iranian delegation that observed the launch of the rocket that broke up about a minute after blasting off from the North's so-called space center.
The continued presence of Iranian missile experts in the country could be a sign that Pyongyang is preparing more missile firings, analysts say, possibly including tests of medium and long-range missiles and actual, medium-range missile strikes on South Korean targets.
Pyongyang's nuclear and missile programs would not be possible without Iranian support. The partnership of the world's most militantly atheist country--Kimist/Communist North Korea--and the world's foremost clerical fascist nation--Islamist Iran--is both ironic and telling. At the very least, their close cooperation in nuclear and missile crimes makes a mockery of the argument, popular in pro-appeasement circles, that Iran's hostility to the West in general and to the United States in particular stems to a significant degree from alleged Western and U.S. insults to Islam.
The Kimist-Islamist alliance also makes a mockery of the term international community. But that's another story. Hmmm......A Fatwa a day makes you work in peace?Read the full story here.

Many analysts expect that with its third test, North Korea will for the first time try a nuclear device using highly enriched uranium, something it was long suspected of developing but which it only publicly admitted to about two years ago.
"If it conducts a nuclear test, it will be uranium rather than plutonium because North Korea would want to use the test as a big global advertisement for its newer, bigger nuclear capabilities," said Baek Seung-joo of the Seoul-based Korea Institute for Defence Analysis.

Recent satellite images have showed that the North has pushed ahead with work at a facility where it conducted previous nuclear tests.
While the nuclear tests have successfully alarmed its neighbors, including China, they also showcase the North's technological skills which helps impress a hardline military at home and buyers of North Korean weapons, one of its few viable exports.The North has long argued that in the face of a hostile United States, which has military bases in South Korea and Japan, it needs a nuclear arsenal to defend itself.
"The new young leadership of North Korea has a very stark choice; they need to take a hard look at their polices, stop the provocative action," U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said at a news conference in Brazil's capital.
The Swiss-educated Kim Jong-un, who is in his late 20s, rose to power after the death of his father, Kim Jong-il, last December. The country's propaganda machine has since made much of his physical likeness to his revered grandfather, the first leader and now North Korea's "eternal president".
But hopes that the young Kim could prove to be a reformer have faded fast. In his first public speech on Sunday, the chubby leader made clear that he would stick to the pro-military policies of his father that helped push the country into a devastating famine in the 1990s.
Kim is surrounded by the same coterie of generals that advised his father and he oversaw Sunday's mass military parade.
He urged his people and 1.2 million strong armed forces to "move forward to final victory" as he lauded his grandfather's and father's achievements in building the country's military. Siegfried Hecker, a U.S. nuclear expert who in 2010 saw a uranium enrichment facility in North Korea, believes the state has 24-42 kg (53 to 95 pounds) of plutonium, enough for four to eight bombs.
Production of plutonium at its Yongbyon reprocessing plant has been halted since 2009 and producing highly enriched uranium would simultaneously allow Pyongyang to push ahead with its nuclear power program and augment its small plutonium stocks that could be used for weapons, Hecker says.
"I believe North Korean scientists and engineers have been working to design miniaturized warheads for years, but they will need to test to demonstrate that the design works: no nuclear test, no confidence," Hecker said in a paper last week.
"Unlike the claim that Pyongyang can make that its space launch is purely for civilian purposes, there is no such civilian cover for a nuclear test. It is purely for military reasons."Read the full story here.

India tests long-range nuclear-capable Agni-V, joins Elite Nuclear ICBM Club.(NdTV).New Delhi: It's Mission Successful for India - Agni V, the country's first Inter-Continental Ballistic Missile (ICBM), has been successfully test-fired. The missile was launched from the Integrated Test Range (ITR) at Wheeler Island off the Odisha coast at 8:07 this morning. The test launch was originally scheduled for Wednesday, but was postponed due to bad weather."The mission was successful. The missile hit the target in the Indian Ocean in a perfect way," Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) chief VK Saraswat declared moments after the launch.
The indigenously developed, nuclear-capable missile has a strike range of 5,000 kilometres. It is about 17 metres long, two metres wide and weighs around 50 tonnes. The sophisticated missile travels faster than a bullet and has the capacity to carry 1000 kilograms of nuclear weapons.Only six countries - including the United States, Russia, United Kingdom, China and France - so far possess this technology. India will break into this exclusive ICBM club once the Agni-V is ready for induction by 2014-2015 - after several more tests.Tipped to be a "game changer" by experts, Agni V will extend India's reach all over Asia, parts of Africa and parts of Europe. The Agni series of missiles, including Agni V, is crucial for India's defence vis-a-vis China since Beijing has upped the ante in recent times by deploying missiles in Tibet Autonomous Region bordering India.After the test flight of the missile was declared successful, Defence Minister AK Antony called the DRDO chief to congratulate him. "The nation stands tall today. We have joined the elite club of nations (who possess the ICBM capability)," the minister reportedly told him over the phone. "The immaculate success of Agni V is a major milestone in the country's missile research and development programme," he added.Read the full story here.

Action Alert – Best Buy: TV's, Computers and Hamas "Terrorist Squad".(IW).By Marc J. Fink.Think again before buying your next flat-screen television or computing device from Best Buy.
The struggling retail giant recently used profits from American consumers to fund the annual banquet of a group closely linked to Hamas. The Minnesota chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) recently listed Best Buy as a "Platinum Sponsor." Best Buy has refused to rule out future support for CAIR through numerous messages to its public relations department. The big box retailer is already in chaos amid the recent resignation of its CEO for personal misconduct, dwindling sales and bond downgrades.
The United States government named CAIR an "unindicted co-conspirator" to fund the terrorist group Hamas in America's most significant terror financing trial. The U.S. also identified CAIR as an agent of the Muslim Brotherhood, sharing the common goal of dismantling American institutions and turning the U.S. into a Sharia-compliant, Islamic state through incremental, stealth jihad.And that's only the beginning.

CAIR's Announcement of Best Buy as a Platinum Sponsor:

The article's author, Marc Fink, said that Best Buy did not respond to repeated emails asking for comment. The article includes instructions to whom to write at Best Buy regarding its connection with CAIR and what to do if you get a response. Fink added this in the email:

Our goal is to secure a commitment from Best Buy to never support CAIR in the future.

I just found these internal email addresses:Susan Busch, Director of Public Relations: susan.busch@bestbuy.com,Lisa Hawks, Deputy Director of Public Relations: lisa.hawks@bestbuy.com

Opposing Qatar-based Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi's fatwa Egypt’s grand mufti, Jordanian prince visit Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque.(AlArabiya).Egypt’s grand mufti visited Jerusalem’s al-Aqsa mosque on Wednesday, a senior Muslim official said, despite claims by an internationally prominent cleric that such visits are a sop to Israel.
Azzam al-Khatib said Ali Gomaa, Egypt’s highest religious authority, “came for a religious visit to al-Aqsa mosque” along with Jordan’s Prince Ghazi bin Mohammed, King Abdullah II’s cousin and advisor on religious issues.
The two men also visited the Church of the Holy Sepulchre and the Greek Orthodox patriarchate, said Khatib.
All three sites are located in Jerusalem’s Old City, which is controlled by Israel, which considers the city its eternal and indivisible capital.
In Amman, Jordan’s ministry of awqaf and Islamic affairs said the visit was in accordance with a command from the Prophet Mohammed to visit only three mosques on pilgrimage − al-Aqsa and the mosques in Mecca and Medina, Saudi Arabia.
It added that Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas had “called on Muslims everywhere to visit al-Aqsa and revitalize it by filling it with worshippers and pilgrims.”
“This trip ... is seen as an effort to encourage Muslims who are able to visit al-Aqsa Mosque, one of Islam’s three holiest sites, and Islam’s first Qiblah (direction of prayer),” it said.
It comes after Qatar-based Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, an Egyptian, said in a religious edict (fatwa) last month that Muslims should not visit Jerusalem “because it requires dealing with Zionist embassies to obtain visas.”
“Such visits might also give legitimacy to the occupation and could be seen as normalization,” Qaradawi said in March.
His fatwa has drawn the ire of Palestinian awqaf minister Mahmud al-Habbash, saying it was “weird and contradicts the Koran and the Prophet’s teachings.”
“The fatwa serves Israeli policies that seek to isolate Jerusalem and Palestinians, who should be supported,” Habbash said.
Earlier this month, the king’s half-brother, Prince Hashim, paid a similar visit to Jerusalem. Also, Jordan’s Interior Minister Mohammad Raud went to the Holy City this week.
The kingdom’s powerful opposition Islamists have denounced such visits.
“In line with Islamic edicts issued by respected clerics and consultations with Christian religious leaders, we consider these trips as acts of normalization that serves the schemes of the enemy,” said Hamzeh Mansur, chief of the Islamic Action Front, the political arm of the Muslim Brotherhood in Jordan, on the party’s website.
“Mosque preachers, thinkers, intellectuals and journalists should intensify their efforts to warn the public against the dangerous risks behind such visits, which must not continue,” added Mansur, who also heads an anti-normalization committee.
Jordan, which has a 1994 peace treaty with Israel, is the custodian of Muslim holy sites in Jerusalem.
One of the most sensitive places in the Middle East, the mosque is referred to by Muslims as al-Haram al-Sharif and is the third most sacred site in Islam. The mosque compound is known to Jews as the Temple Mount and is revered as Judaism’s most sacred site.Hmmm......Countdown for the Muslim Brotherhood to start riots in Jordan....activated.Read the full story here.

Iran - Fatwa against nuclear weapons political milestone.(PressTV).The fatwa issued by the Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyyed Ali Khamenei forbidding the production, proliferation and use of nuclear bombs is to be considered a political milestone in Iranian history and one which can salvage the Islamic nation from the spate of external threats and plots.
Fatwa is a religious decree issued by a Muslim leader against a specific issue and it is incumbent upon all Muslims to abide by it. However, in this particular case, the issuance of the fatwa has not only religious but political force as well as the leader in the Islamic Republic is the prime decision-maker.
The recent P5+1 talks, which the US officials hailed as “a step forward” and EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton described as “constructive and useful”, were held in an ambience filled with optimism this fatwa inspired. Although the ten-hour talks between Iran and the six world powers apparently bore no tangible fruits, the two sides ended the talks with an air of sanguinity in a feel-good atmosphere. Further to that, the two sides seemed resolute to put an end to the long-standing dispute so stubbornly dragged on for years by the West.
Some Iranian officials have expressed hope and optimism the next round of talks slated to be held in Baghdad on May 23 will come to fruition.
Iran's Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast told reporters in Zagreb, Croatia, on Wednesday, “We are optimistic about the future of negotiations and want the other sides to put their words into action.”
The western pessimistic glasses have cast a dark haze over Iran’s nuclear energy program, making long-standing efforts to inculcate that Iran is seeking a nuclear weapons program.The US government is morally and financially indebted to Iran. What seems to be the right course of action to be taken by the US government is that Washington should make it clearly known to Iran that it entertains good intentions about the Iranian nation and that it is resolute to compensate for the agony and havoc it has wrought upon Iran. In other words, it is Washington which should take first steps to dispel ambiguities as to its intentions.The fatwa of the Leader of the Islamic Revolution can well serve as a beacon of light for Washington in order to find its way out of darkness and ignorance.Hmmmm.......Someone should tell Nuclear Armed ISLAMIC Pakistan about these 'Fatwas'.......There's one born every minute!The Islamic
republic’s diplomats point to Ayatollah Ali Khamenei’s 2004 fatwa against the
development, production, stockpiling, and use ofnuclear
weapons. The
inviolability and permanence of the fatwa is open to some interpretation,
however, and in earlier days, Iranian leaders made little secret of their
intentions. In 1991, Deputy President Ayatollah
Mohajerani stated that Iran should workwith other Islamic states to create an ‘‘Islamic bomb.’’
Ali Akbar Hashemi-Rafsanjani,characterized today as a pragmatist, in contrast to
hardliner Ahmadinejad, in 1988
explicitly called on Iran to equip itself both in the offensive and defense use
of chemical,bacteriological and radiological weapons.’’ By
then, as then-Speaker of the Majlis and Commander in Chief, Rafsanjani had
already won Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini’s approval to resume the Shah’s nuclear
program and to begin secretly importing
material and conducting experiments in violation of Iran’s safeguards agreement
with the IAEARead the the full story here.

Text of Netanyahu’s Holocaust Remembrance Day speech.(TimesOfIsrael).Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address at Yad Vashem on Wednesday, April 18, Holocaust Remembrance Day. (Official Prime Minister’s Office translation from the Hebrew.)
Yesterday morning, I visited an old-age home for Holocaust survivors. There, I met Idit Yapo, an amazing woman of 104, clear and lucid. I dit fled Germany shortly after Hitler gained power, in 1934.
I met 89-year-old Esther Nadiv, one of Mendele’s twins. She was reading a book, Golda Meir’s biography, and she told me, with a glint in her eye, she said: “I am so proud, so very proud to be a part of the State of Israel which is in constant development.”
I met Hanoch Mandelbaum, an 89-year-old survivor of Bergen-Belsen. Shortly after he came to Israel, as a young carpenter, he helped construct the desk upon which Ben Gurion signed the Declaration of Independence. That is MiSho’a liTkuma – from holocaust to resurrection.
And I met Elisheva Lehman, an 88 year-old Holocaust survivor from Holland, who was a music teacher.
I asked Elisheva if she would play something for us and she did. She enthusiastically played “Am Yisrael Chai” and we all sung together. It was quite emotional.
Ladies and Gentlemen,
Am Yisrael Chai [The nation of Israel lives]
Our enemies tried to bury the Jewish future, but it was reborn in the land of our forefathers. Here, we built a foundation for a new beginning of freedom, hope, and creation. Year after year, decade after decade, we built the foundations of our country, and we will continue to yearly strengthen the pillars of our national life.
On this day, when our entire nation gathers together to remember the horrors of the Holocaust and the six million Jews who were murdered, we must fulfill our most sacred obligation.
This obligation is not merely an obligation to remember the past. It is an obligation to learn its lessons, and, most importantly, to apply them to the present in order to secure the future of our people. We must remember the past and secure the future by applying the lessons of the past.
This is especially true for this generation – a generation that once again is faced with calls to annihilate the Jewish State.
One day, I hope that the State of Israel will enjoy peace with all the countries and all the peoples in our region. One day, I hope that we will read about these calls to destroy the Jews only in history books and not in daily newspapers.
But that day has not yet come.
Today, the regime in Iran openly calls and determinedly works for our destruction. And it is feverishly working to develop atomic weapons to achieve that goal.
I know that there are those who do not like when I speak such uncomfortable truths. They prefer that we not speak of a nuclear Iran as an existential threat. They say that such language, even if true, only sows fear and panic.
I ask, have these people lost all faith in the people of Israel?
Do they think that this nation, which has overcome every danger, lacks the strength to confront this new threat?
Did the State of Israel not triumph over existential threats when it was far less powerful than it is today? Did its leaders have any qualms about saying the truth?
David Ben Gurion told the people of Israel the truth about the existential dangers they faced in 1948 when five Arab armies tried to snuff Israel out in its cradle.
Levi Eshkol told the people of Israel the truth in 1967 when a noose was being placed around Israel’s neck and we stood alone to face our fate.
And when they heard these truths, did the people of Israel panic or did they unite to thwart the dangers? Were we paralyzed with fear or did we do what was necessary to protect ourselves.
I believe in the people of Israel – and this belief is based on our experiences. I believe that the people of Israel can handle the truth. And I believe that they we have the capability to defeat those who seek to harm us.
Those who dismiss Iran’s threats as exaggerated or as mere idle posturing have learned nothing from the Holocaust. But we should not be surprised.
There have always been those among us who prefer to mock those who tell uncomfortable truths than squarely face the truth themselves.
That is how Zev Jabotinsky was received when he warned the Jews of Poland of the looming Holocaust.
This is what he said in 1938, in Warsaw:
“It is already THREE years that I am calling upon you, Polish Jewry, who are the crown of World Jewry. I continue to warn you incessantly that a catastrophe is coming closer. I became grey and old in these years, my heart bleeds, that you, dear brother and sisters, do not see the volcano which will soon begin to spit its all-consuming lava… I see that you are not seeing this because you are immersed and sunk in your daily worries… Listen to me in this twelfth hour: In the name of G-d! Let anyone of you save himself, as long as there is still time, and time there is very little.”
But the leading Jewish intellectuals of the day ridiculed Jabotinsky, and rather than heed his warning, they attacked him.
This is what Sholem Asch, one of our nation’s greatest writers, said about him:
“What Jabotinsky is now doing in Poland is going too far. His statement is detrimental to Zionism and to the vital interests of our people… It is disgraceful that these are leaders of a nation.”
I know there are also those who believe that the unique evil of the Holocaust should never be invoked in discussing other threats facing the Jewish people.
To do so, they argue, is to belittle the Holocaust and to offend its victims.
I totally disagree. On the contrary. To cower from speaking the uncomfortable truth – that today like then, there are those who want to destroy millions of Jewish people – that is to belittle the Holocaust, that is to offend its victims and that is to ignore the lessons.
Not only does the Prime Minister of Israel have the right, when speaking of these existential dangers, to invoke the memory of a third of our nation which was annihilated. It is his duty.
There is a memorable scene in Claude Lanzmann’s documentary Shoah that explains this obligation more than anything.
In the harsh existence in the Warsaw Ghetto, Leon Feiner of the Bund and Menachem Kirschenbaum of the General Zionists met with Jan Karski from the Polish World War II Resistance Movement.
Jan Karski was a decent, sensitive man, and they begged him to appeal to the conscience of the world against the Nazi crimes. They described what was happening, they showed him, but to no avail.
They said: “Help us. We have no country of our own, we have no government, and we even have no voice among the nations”
They were right.
Seventy years ago the Jewish people did not have the national capacity to summon the nations, nor the military might to defend itself.
But today things are different.
Today we have an army.
We have the ability, the duty and the determination to defend ourselves.
As Prime Minister of Israel, I will never shy from speaking the truth before the world, no matter how uncomfortable it may seem to some.
I speak the truth at the United Nations; I speak the truth in Washington DC, the capital of our great friend, the United States, and in other important capitals; And I speak the truth here in Jerusalem, on the grounds of Yad VaShem which are saturated with remembrance.
I will continue to speak the truth to the world, but first and foremost I must speak it to my own people. I know that my people is strong enough to hear the truth.
The truth is that a nuclear-armed Iran is an existential threat of the State of Israel.
The truth is that a nuclear-armed Iran is an political threat to other countries throughout the region and a grave threat to the world peace.
The truth is that Iran must be stopped from obtaining nuclear weapons.
It is the duty of the whole world, but above and beyond, it is OUR duty.
The memory of the Holocaust goes beyond holding memorial services; it is not merely a historical recollection.
The memory of the Holocaust obligates us to apply the lessons of the past to ensure the basis of our future.
We will never bury our heads in the sand.
Am Yisrael Chai, veNetzach Yisrael Lo Yeshaker
[The Nation of Israel Lives, and the Eternal one of Israel does not Lie].Source.

Senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps : "All Vessels Need Iran's Permission to Pass through Strait of Hormuz.".(Fars). Tehran - A senior commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps said that all vessels, including the US warships, enter the Persian Gulf waters through the Strait of Hormuz only after they are checked by the IRGC naval forces.
"The alien vessels which enter the Persian Gulf via the Strait of Hormuz always provide the needed answers and information to the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps (IRGC) units," Lieutenant Commander of the IRGC Naval Force Alireza Tangsiri said on Wednesday.
He further noted the deployment of a US aircraft carrier in the region, and said, "This vessel, similar to the other warships, answered all the questions asked by the IRGC Navy without any problem or making any particular move and then continued the path to its specified destination."
In relevant remarks today, Commander of the Iranian Army Major General Ataollah Salehi downplayed deployment of two aircraft carriers by the US in waters near the Persian Gulf, and warned the US naval forces not to approach the red zones announced by the Iranian armed forces.
"We have warned them (foreign naval forces) before that some areas in the Persian Gulf are considered by us as zones of threat and they should not stop in those areas," Salehi told FNA on Wednesday.
"Of course, they have paid attention to the warning and are respecting it," Salehi underscored.
The remarks by the Iranian army commander came as the US announced the deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along with the Abraham Lincoln carrier in waters near the Persian Gulf.
The US says that the deployment is "routine" and the two carriers will support the American military operations in Afghanistan and anti-piracy efforts off Somalia's coast and in the Gulf of Aden.Meanwhile Iran’s official news agency reported the country has established headquarters for managing nuclear crises.
The report by IRNA said the headquarters will be in charge of monitoring and confronting nuclear threats and pollution as well as improving public awareness, The Associated Press reported. The move is seen a part of preparations for increasing use of
nuclear energy. The report also said Fereidoun Abbasi, Iran’s nuclear chief, will run the headquarters operation under the civil
defense agency.Hmmmm.........They understood last week that Obama is on their side?Read the full story here.

Obama ready to yield on Iran's nuclear transparency, Israel:Tehran will cheat.(Debka). In the direct, secret exchanges between the US and Iran which led up to the Istanbul talks with the six powers, of Saturday, April 14, President Barack Obama quietly backed off from his demand that Iran “come clean” on its nuclear activities and open up to international inspection, debkafile reports.
This concession paved the way for Tehran’s consent to discuss his framework proposal to stop enriching uranium to 20 percent, halt work at its underground facility for higher enrichment near Qom, and export its stockpile of highly enriched uranium for final processing to 20 percent for use in medical isotopes. This would be presented as a deal for settling the nuclear controversy.
debkafile’s military sources:
The Iranians may find it worth their while to accept this framework. After all, once sanctions are lifted by the end of June - as Tehran demands - and they are freed of IAEA oversight, the Iranians can go forward with their plans for building a nuclear weapon undisturbed and Washington can celebrate a breakthrough.
Israel has not received word of this deal.
debkafile’s Washington sources report that in contrast with the downbeat mood in Israel, Washington is already celebrating its success in resolving the Iranian nuclear conundrum and averting war.
Our sources have two points to make in this regard:
1. Tehran has not yet put pen to paper to approve the American proposal and agreed only to move forward in their back-door negotiations without prejudice:
2. Obama will eventually have to level with Israel, the American people and the rest of the world on his deal with Iran.
There is no chance of Israel’s Binyamin Netanyahu going along with agreements on the lines under discussion between Washington and Iran, because they would allow Iran to develop nuclear armaments relieved of the hindrances of international oversight and sanctions.
The Israeli prime minister, when he addressed the state ceremony marking the annual Holocaust Remembrance Day Wednesday night, spoke at length of the mortal danger a nuclear Iran for the Jewish state. He said those who maintained Israel lacked the military capacity for dealing with the Iranian menace were wrong.
“We can and will defend ourselves,” he said.“I won’t stop stating the truth (about Iran) at the UN, in Washington and in Jerusalem.”
Israeli Deputy Prime Minister and Minister for Strategic Affairs Moshe Ya'alon, sharply criticized the Obama administration for its handling of the nuclear dispute with Iran: "We (Israel) no longer believe in the Americans, and on the Iran issue, we are not in the same boat."
“Three years ago, Iran had 1,200 kilos of low enriched uranium; today it has five and a half tons,” he pointed out.
Ya'alon also warned that after the way the proceedings went in Istanbul, right after the second round of talks on May 23 in Baghdad, “Israel will review its steps,”
Citing the classical Hebrew adage: If I do not watch out for myself, who will? (אם אין אני לי מי לי?).Hmmmmm......As i said from day one"What else did Obama and Erdogan promise Iran?Read the full story here.

Gulf seafood deformities alarm scientists.(AlJazeera).
New Orleans, LA - "The fishermen have never seen anything like this," Dr Jim Cowan told Al Jazeera. "And in my 20 years working on red snapper, looking at somewhere between 20 and 30,000 fish, I've never seen anything like this either."
Dr Cowan, with Louisiana State University's Department of Oceanography and Coastal Sciences started hearing about fish with sores and lesions from fishermen in November 2010.
Cowan's findings replicate those of others living along vast areas of the Gulf Coast that have been impacted by BP's oil and dispersants.
Gulf of Mexico fishermen, scientists and seafood processors have told Al Jazeera they are finding disturbing numbers of mutated shrimp, crab and fish that they believe are deformed by chemicals released during BP's 2010 oil disaster.
Along with collapsing fisheries, signs of malignant impact on the regional ecosystem are ominous: horribly mutated shrimp, fish with oozing sores, underdeveloped blue crabs lacking claws, eyeless crabs and shrimp - and interviewees' fingers point towards BP's oil pollution disaster as being the cause.
Eyeless shrimp
Tracy Kuhns and her husband Mike Roberts, commercial fishers from Barataria, Louisiana, are finding eyeless shrimp.
"At the height of the last white shrimp season, in September, one of our friends caught 400 pounds of these," Kuhns told Al Jazeera while showing a sample of the eyeless shrimp.
According to Kuhns, at least 50 per cent of the shrimp caught in that period in Barataria Bay, a popular shrimping area that was heavily impacted by BP's oil and dispersants, were eyeless. Kuhns added: "Disturbingly, not only do the shrimp lack eyes, they even lack eye sockets.""Some shrimpers are catching these out in the open Gulf [of Mexico]," she added, "They are also catching them in Alabama and Mississippi. We are also finding eyeless crabs, crabs with their shells soft instead of hard, full grown crabs that are one-fifth their normal size, clawless crabs, and crabs with shells that don't have their usual spikes … they look like they've been burned off by chemicals."Read and see the full story here.

Iranian Ayatollah Javadi-Amoli: "Homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs".(Guardian).An influential Iranian cleric who is entitled to issue juristic rulings according to the Sharia law, has condemned western lawmakers involved in the decriminalisation of homosexuality, saying those politicians are lower than animals.
Ayatollah Abdollah Javadi-Amoli, an Islamic scholar based in Iran's holy city of Qom, said in a speech among his followers that homosexuals are inferior to dogs and pigs, according to the news website Khabaronline.
"If a society commits a new sin, it will face a new punishment," he said while interpreting Qur'anic verses about prophet Lot whose tribe Isalmic scholars say was punished by God for sodomy. "Problems like Aids did not exist before."
Citing the Qur'an, Javadi-Amoli said politicians who pass laws in favour of homosexuals are lower than animals. "Even animals ... dogs and pigs don't engage in this disgusting act [homosexuality] but yet they [western politicians] pass laws in favour of them in their parliaments."
Homosexuality is punishable by death according to fatwas issued by almost all Iranian clerics. Until recently, Lavat (sodomy for men) was punishable by death for all individuals involved in consensual sexual intercourse.But under new amendments approved recently in the Iranian parliament the person who played an active role will be flogged 100 times if the sex was consensual and he was not married, but the one who played a passive role will still be put to death regardless of his marriage status.
Despite the horrific punishment for homosexuals in Iran, the gay community in the country is alive underground and has won some recognition by coming out in defiance of the regime.
In September 2011, a group of gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender Iranians launched a campaign on Facebook, highlighting the discrimination against sexual minorities in Iran where homosexuals are put to death.Read the full story here.

Syrian dictator Bashar Assad's British-born wife has been urged to 'stop being a
bystander' and order her husband to stop the violence in a video released by the
wives of two ambassadors. HT: Israel Matzav. More here.

Abbas to Seek Implementing Geneva Convention in Palestinian Territory, can we imprison them now for war crimes?(IMRA).Dr. Aaron Lerner - IMRA: If Mahmoud Abbas is so keen to treat the
Palestinian terrorists as soldiers, does he agree to having them being
imprisoned for war crimes?
Or does Mr. Abbas think that under some bizarre interpretation of the Geneva
Convention that it is OK to deliberately target civilians?
RAMALLAH, April 17, 2012 (WAFA) – President Mahmoud Abbas Tuesday said the
Palestinian Authority will seek high contracting parties to the Fourth
Geneva Convention to demand implementing the convention in the Palestinian
territory, especially regarding Palestinian prisoners.
Abbas said on the occasion of the Palestinian Prisoner Day that PA will call
for implementing the Geneva Convention on Palestinian prisoners so as to be
treated as war prisoners with the entailing basic human rights, in
accordance to the international law and resolutions.
He stressed that the issue of the prisoners is on the top of the Palestinian
leadership’s priority, and called on Palestinians in general and Palestinian
prisoners in specific to maintain unity, affirming that the only side making
use of division is Israel.
Abbas said that despite of Israel’s declared position supporting the
two-state solution; it is in fact working on tearing down any possible
chance to achieve it.Read the full story here.

Egypt's presidential election, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi 'favorite' Abdelmoneim Abul Futuh still in the race.(RTE).First, consider that none other than the Muslim Brotherhood’s leader and top theological scholar – Yusuf al-Qaradawi – has endorsed Abul-Futuh. "I will vote for Abul-Futuh," Qaradawi, the president of the International Union for Muslim Scholars (IUMS), has told the Qatari newspaper Al-Arab.
Dr. Abul-Futuh has unveiled a bid to run in Egypt's presidential elections as an independent. Abul-Futuh has said that he had consulted Sheikh Qaradawi before his decision to run for presidency.
Why would al-Qaradawi back the man expelled by the Brotherhood over the man flying its banner as the Ikhwan’s candidate? Second, both al-Qaradawi and Abul-Futuh are practitioners of Muruna – the lifting of prohibitions in order to aspire to a higher calling. In this case, though not confirmed, a public announcement that he is leaving the Brotherhood while secretly retaining membership would be permitted under Muruna.
That leads us to another problem facing Abul-Futuh. According to El-Balad, Futuh is registered as a citizen of Qatar. Under Egyptian law, it is a serious crime to apply for citizenship in a foreign land without permission of the Egyptian government. Interestingly, according to the Muslim World League website, Qaradawi fled to Qatar in the 1970′s and received citizenship there as well, making him a lawbreaker too.Ironically, in response to a question from the White House Press Corps., President Barack Obama’s Press Secretary Jay Carney answered a concern about the Muslim Brotherhood getting a red carpet welcome from the White House, by saying:
“The point is that we will judge Egypt’s political actors by how they act, not by their religious affiliation.”
Apparently, insidious criminal behavior and eligibility issues of presidential candidates with a certain religious affiliation does not warrant an unfavorable judgment from the office of the President of the United States.Hmmmm......Sounds 'familiar'...?Read the full story here.

Israel marks Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day beginning Wednesday at sundown.(Israelhayom).By Yael Branovsky, Yori Yalon, Shlomo Cesana, Danny Brenner, Zeev Klein, Nitzi Yakov and The Associated Press.Israel marks Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Day beginning Wednesday at sundown, with events scheduled across the country to memorialize the 6 million Jews who perished in the Holocaust. The national day of commemoration – whose theme this year is "My Brother's Keeper: Jewish Solidarity During the Holocaust" – officially begins at 8 p.m. with the national ceremony at Warsaw Ghetto Square at the Yad Vashem Holocaust memorial museum. As in years past, six survivors will light six torches at the ceremony in memory of the 6 million who were murdered by the Nazis during World War II.
President Shimon Peres, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin and Supreme Court President Asher Grunis will attend the ceremony, in addition to 2,500 Holocaust survivors, public figures and Israeli youth. The ceremony will be broadcast live on Israeli television and radio.
Holocaust Remembrance Day events continue Thursday as the country grinds to a halt at 10 a.m., when sirens are set to wail across Israeli cities and citizens stand at attention in memory of the victims of the Holocaust. Other memorial ceremonies are scheduled at additional sites in Israel, such as the Ghetto Fighters' Kibbutz and Kibbutz Yad Mordechai, as well as schools, military bases, municipalities and other places of work. Throughout the day, both television and radio broadcast programs about the Holocaust.
Some 200,000 Holocaust survivors currently live in Israel, about 70,000 of whom survived concentration camps and ghettos. Many of them live in poverty and previous governments have been criticized for not doing enough to allow them to live out their lives in dignity.
However, the cabinet on Tuesday boosted its budget for assisting Holocaust survivors. The government said the basket of services for Holocaust survivors would rise to NIS 225 million ($60 million) for 2012, a 13 percent increase. An additional $13 million will be directed toward increasing monthly stipends for particularly needy survivors. Stipends currently range from $530 to $1,900 each month.
Netanyahu told the cabinet that it was urgent to help survivors, adding that as time passes fewer survivors remain alive.
"We want to remember those who perished, the 6 million brothers and sisters, and heed the lessons of the Holocaust in order to ensure the future of our people," Netanyahu said.
Deputy Minister for Senior Citizen Affairs Lea Nass said many of the remaining survivors had not even tried to claim their government benefits. She said that in recent years, government officials had "succeeded in reaching 120,000 survivors." In 50,000 cases, "we went to their homes in order to help them utilize their rights and receive the government assistance to which they are due," Nass said.
Avner Shalev, chairman of Yad Vashem, attended Tuesday's cabinet meeting, which was called to review the government's assistance to survivors and its efforts to commemorate the Holocaust and to showcase examples of private collectibles that the public donated to Yad Vashem over the past year. The personal items were donated as part of the museum's program "Gathering the Fragments," a national campaign to rescue personal items from the time of the Holocaust. Since the campaign was launched this time last year, more than 51,000 items have been collected.
At the start of the cabinet meeting, Netanyahu presented one of those items – a shirt belonging to 4-year-old Rafael Denty, who was murdered at Auschwitz. "These items are being collected into a single fabric that provides tangible documentation of the disaster that befell the Jewish people," the prime minister said.
As in other years, Jewish teens from Israel and elsewhere will take part in the March of the Living trip to Poland, where they will march from Auschwitz to Birkenau on Holocaust Remembrance Day, and then travel to Israel for Israeli Memorial Day and Independence Day.
The march in Poland marks the 25th anniversary of the founding of the educational journey, and this year will focus on allied soldiers who liberated the concentration camps 67 years ago.
For the first time in March of the Living’s history, Israel Police Commissioner Insp. Gen. Yohanan Danino will take part in the event. He is scheduled to arrive in Krakow, Poland, on Wednesday and will officiate at the opening ceremony honoring the camps' liberators.
Danino is expected to tell them, "I stand before you, the liberators of concentration camps and the saviors of the survivors, and in the name of the state of Israel and its people, army, and police forces, I thank you and salute you."
On Thursday, Danino will lead a delegation of 200 Israel Police officers on the march. Some 10,000 people are to take part in the march on Thursday, including Holocaust survivors, Jewish youths from 48 countries around the world, Tel Aviv's Chief Rabbi Meir Lau, and hundreds of World War II veterans from different countries, who fought against the Nazis.
One of the participants from the Israel Police is Menachem Frenkel, 76, who was deported to a concentration camp from his home in Belgium when he was 4. Frenkel's father died at Auschwitz. "For me, marching in Auschwitz in an Israeli police uniform is like coming full circle," Frenkel said.
Frenkel has been volunteering with the Israel Police for 11 years. He was born in Belgium, and his family fled to France after the Nazi invasion. As his family did not have French citizenship, they had no protection against Nazi forces. "Because of the great hunger, my father had to sign us up for food stamps," Frenkel said. "It didn't take long for the Nazis to find us and send us to a concentration camp, from which my father was sent to Auschwitz where he was murdered."
Frenkel survived the war, as did his mother and sister, and they moved to Israel together. "The state has done a great deal for us and I decided I have to give something back," he said of his decision to volunteer for the police following his retirement. "I have already visited Poland since the war, but this year is different – I returned in a police uniform. I will march proudly to Auschwitz. It will be extremely powerful and emotional to arrive at the gas chambers in my uniform, knowing that my father was killed there."Read the full story here.

Here is a Video of @keithellison saying that the Jews were behind 9/11. pic.twitter.com/bE9HxKBgmO — VP Elect (@MikePenceVP) November 20,...

In Memory Of Alexander Munch (1948 - 2012).

Israeli Six-Day War Vet.

Previous Blogs here and here."
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the right to tell people what they do not want to hear." George Orwell.

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Irshad Manji.

"Muslim refusenik" is a phrase Manji uses to identify herself as someone who refuses to "join an army of robots in the name of God.".

Ayaan Hirsi Ali .

Wafa Sultan .

"Telling the truth after proper investigation is the height of courage." - Wafa Sultan.

Hagarism - The Making of the Islamic World.

Pakistani Women's Human Rights Organisation

Persian2English -

Stop Child Executions

I Stand With Israel !

Koran 7:7, where G-d Himself bequeaths the Land of Israel to the Jews, as a nation who thought themselves weak, and blesses them with goodness.Source

Shariah: The Threat to America

This book is based on the statements of the world's leading Shariah authorities and Shariah academic scholars.

The Abuse of Holocaust Memory.

Myths of Islam

"Religion does not require women to veil their hands, feet and faces or enjoin any special type of veil. Tribal custom must not impose itself on the free will of the individual."

Amanullah Khan - King of Afghanistan (1919-1929).

The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar, head of Al-Azhar, the highest seat of learning in the Sunni world.“The niqab is a tradition and has nothing to do with Islam,” said Sheikh Tantawi, vowing to ban it in Al-Azhar schools.After the girl complied he insisted she should not wear it any more.“I tell you again that the niqab has nothing to do with Islam and it is only a mere custom. I understand the religion better than you and your parents.” The Grand Imam of Al-Azhar imam vowed to issue a ban against the face-veil in all schools linked to Al-Azhar.“Source

The Jewish Holocaust.

The Armenian Holocaust.

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